tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post2149683748317834112..comments2024-03-26T01:17:49.256+00:00Comments on Roles, Rules, and Rolls: Deformity DisgustRoger G-Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-23238988211648535262011-06-07T17:53:27.458+01:002011-06-07T17:53:27.458+01:00Fantastic post. Right up my street.
We can see ho...Fantastic post. Right up my street.<br /><br />We can see how this disgust blends into fear and then hatred. As you say, it is because of existential fear.<br /><br />The critical action here is rejection. We want to get the things that disgust, frighten and anger us out of our sight; preferably by sending them away but if necessary by running away or destroying them.<br /><br />Why get them out of our sight? Because if we integrate them then we must necessarily adjust our world-view to make them a real possibility for our own ideal self. Changing world-views is always traumatic, especially when it might mean accepting the nondiscriminatory nature of bad fortune and the lack of a benevolent guiding force.<br /><br />Cosmic horror is horrifying because the otherness is so overwhelming that it is impossible to reject by any of the means above (the sole refuge being in madness). One is forced to confront the truth of oneself - mortal, ephemeral, made of meat and bones and nothing more, working and living in a societal construct that has no real truth... and so forth.<br /><br />Something interesting here for the modern era: now that much of our drudge work is machine rather than animal, we have the rise of the bio-mechanical as a source of horror and otherness. From the more straightforward cyborgs to the unsettling artwork of Geiger in which human and machine blend together. As with centaurs we are generally OK with cyborgs unless the detail becomes visceral enough to remind us of the dissonance between flesh and metal.<br /><br />Is this parallel because - as you say - we are familiar enough with the nonhuman workforce to understand them and so become shocked when that which we are close to becomes too close altogether? Or perhaps it is a dualism thing - using the symbolism of manual labour it forces us to examine whether or not there is separation of mind and body, physical and sublime, being and nothingness.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06011974487836242987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-11078311413923511812011-06-06T04:03:52.587+01:002011-06-06T04:03:52.587+01:00I tried to think of some hybrids I found 'disg...I tried to think of some hybrids I found 'disgusting':<br /><br />The original film version of Mr. Hyde gives him animal qualities but he is still mostly human. He's very "ugly" and I think gets the "disgust" reaction from that. <br /><br />The animals in the Island of Doctor Moreau ('96) are much closer to the animal side of things, and really don't evoke that cartoon animal-people vibe. They're quite grotesque.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457050225967190052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-66271908317790936162011-06-06T03:46:25.322+01:002011-06-06T03:46:25.322+01:00I think Stuart's point is more a result of phy...I think Stuart's point is more a result of physical separation from livestock than the role of the cartoon per se. For example, most people have a mental image of a pig that is very different from that held by someone 100 years ago, because they never actually see a real pig very much anymore. Certainly not a really dirty one, usually a clean one like Babe or similar.<br /><br />100 years ago, someone who thinks about a pig-face monster would probably make it very dirty and similar to a real pig. Today, there is no reference point, so people fall back to the cartoon as a backup.Pontifexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01761338487255048337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-43778981832996755812011-06-05T21:12:27.032+01:002011-06-05T21:12:27.032+01:00@Stuart: Good point, I think the usual cartoon rep...@Stuart: Good point, I think the usual cartoon representation works because it doesn't dwell too much on the physical, or how creepy such a creature would really be. The first step in that direction starts with the old saw, "If Pluto is a dog then what the hell is Goofy?"<br /><br />@Sigilic: The uncanny valley is very apropos here, and may be even more relevant to moral applications of disgust (which I'll cover eventually). For now I would say the specific problem of creating an eerie almost-human through description might be solvable, sometimes, through quirks of dialogue that betray a failure of empathy, inability to follow conversational norms, etc.Roger G-Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-42147770741442350322011-06-05T18:49:03.460+01:002011-06-05T18:49:03.460+01:00Articles regarding the "uncanny valley" ...Articles regarding the "<a href="http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" rel="nofollow">uncanny</a> <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UncannyValley" rel="nofollow">valley</a>" of perception may be helpful in expanding this discussion. Tough to capture this effect in oral narrative, because it requires a fairly complete description of normality with just one feature subtly off. <br /><br />A fairly poor example: "The barmaid? She has curves in all the right places, and a simply lovely face. Sparkling blues eyes, rosy cheeks, wavy blond hair, a cute little nose." <br /><br />Later, as the curious adventurer flirts with that barmaid: "She sneezes, and her nose falls off into your drink - revealing a roughly triangular hole in which a few maggots squirm."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4829093857574761981.post-57158473980132581782011-06-05T12:35:56.305+01:002011-06-05T12:35:56.305+01:00Very interesting! :)
Do you think that popular ch...Very interesting! :)<br /><br />Do you think that popular children's cartoons and comics has changed our perception of human animal hybrids? I think many people would describe human-animals as cartoony / comical rather than "disgusting". You would need to emphasize unusual elements or add separate disgusting description to make them, er, disgusting. Mange, fleas, deformities, beastial behaviour (not appearance), non-human eyes, smell, etcAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457050225967190052noreply@blogger.com